


achilles and his gold / hercules and his gifts

by eldritchbee



Category: HuGっと！プリキュア | Hug tto! Precure, プリキュア | PreCure | Pretty Cure Series
Genre: Canon Compliant, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Protective Siblings, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Hatred, Siblings, siblings realizing how fucked up their childhood was by watching their other siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-30
Updated: 2019-03-30
Packaged: 2019-12-26 15:16:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18284897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eldritchbee/pseuds/eldritchbee
Summary: “I can’t help her,” he says, over and over again, and each time Henri reaches out in the dark, meaning to do the same for Masato as he had done for himand each time failing.[Henri and Masato before, during, and after the events of episode 41]





	achilles and his gold / hercules and his gifts

**Author's Note:**

> while I got the family dynamics in the Aisaki family wrong in my old fic, fairytale bliss (esp wrt the parents) I still consider it canon compliant, and this fic will reference it and connect to it

 

* * *

 _I've been reading books of old_  
_The legends and the myths_  
_Achilles and his gold_  
_Hercules and his gifts_  
_Spiderman's control_  
_And Batman with his fists_  
_And clearly I don't see myself upon that list_

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He remembers a few months ago, the feeling of the cold smooth wall of the ice rink’s waiting area against his back, Criasu’s card burning and freezing at the same time in his pocket, and Aisaki Masato’s warm hand in his. He remembers after, over and over and over again, the pains shooting up to his knee, the way his hand felt rubbing over hairs starting to grow over his jaw, the way each jump felt like his last

and the way Aisaki Masato had noticed it all. Aisaki Masato, who couldn’t do anything but hold him tight, glasses pressed into his shoulder, and say over and over again

_hooray, hooray, Henri_

_hooray, hooray -_

  
  
  


Henri had noticed it then and said nothing, of course. He’d noticed it then and turned a blind eye, dove deep into the comfort of Masato’s cheers because he had no idea how to solve that last little puzzle piece of those words. Because he wasn’t certain yet how to form the words properly: _hooray, hooray, Masato_ . It was hard to imagine, it was something he didn’t _want_ to imagine: the deep, dark hatred Masato felt towards his own self, one that had made him before spew out ugly words towards people who held more freedom than he, trying to bind them like he bound himself. That deep, dark hatred of himself, ugly and bitter, choking him sometimes whenever they’re together and someone _asks_ \- _are you two…_

Masato is no hero, no knight. By his own admission - under the dark cool stairwells of the school or the entry areas of the ice rinks, where no one else can see or hear them - Masato is a coward. A boring boy with expensive yet bland clothing who sees his little sister fighting monsters and singing her heart out in bright bold public knowing what their grandfather would say and knows he can’t do any of that.

But, Henri is not Hana. Before this, maybe he would have believed that to be a good thing. But, Hana would understand more

Hana could help.

Part of him wanted to push Masato that way, to Nono Hana, Cure _Yell’s_ cheers so that she could tell him he was _worth_ something, so that she could say _hooray hooray_ -

but then he remembers his own feelings, that little dark part of his heart that makes the card from Criasu pulse in his mind, when it came to Homare.

 _They wouldn’t understand_. 

(and, besides, Nono Hana wasn’t someone he thought he could force upon another. Nono Hana was the sort of person who had to come to you. Nono Hana was herself, after all, and he didn’t know how she’d react to him setting Masato down in front of her and saying _fix him_.

because he didn’t think she even knew how she did it.

he didn’t even know if she _knew_ she _did_ it.

that, however, was a different problem for a different time.)

They wouldn’t understand, and in the end neither did _Henri_ , with the words light on the tip of his tongue: _hooray hooray_ -

with the words on the tip of his tongue: _I love y_ -

  
  


They don’t understand, until Henri realizes he missed something important. When Emiru loses her voice, clawing at her throat and crying so hard, Masato is in a panic. Because Lulu can’t make it stop, neither can Hana or Saaya or Homare, because his sister feels helpless and he’s a coward, and he’s weak, and he can’t do anything about it because how could he? When he’d silenced her before, when he’d tried to smother her strength so she felt the same as he did. “I can’t help her,” he says, “I can’t I can’t I can’t.” He’d carried her home on his own back, refusing to let Lulu or Harry do so because he’d said _it’s all I can do_.

All their joking around hours earlier suddenly felt a thousand times more foolish.

By Masato’s own admission - here, in the cold dark of his room, with plain walls and simple books all uniform and orderly - he’s a coward. “I can’t help her,” he says, over and over again, and each time Henri reaches out in the dark, meaning to do the same for Masato as he had done for him

and each time failing.

“I wish I could give her my voice instead,” he whispers in the dark. “Cut it out of my throat, I’m not using it right anyway. I don’t have courage for her, but the least I can do -”

“ _Masato_ ,” Henri snaps finally, and this time he really means to do it, stands up from Masato’s desk chair and walks to sit next to him on the bed. Reaches out so their skin just barely brushes together

and then an older man’s voice comes from down the hall, yelling for Emiru, and Masato’s entire body turns electric, shooting up with a different sort of panic. “ _Grandfather_ ,” and Henri can’t hide the scowl from his face. The voice is memorized and despised and stored away. Masato is already out of the room, the warmth of his skin still at the tips of Henri’s fingers. He breathes in.

“Hooray, hooray, Masato.”

  
  


He remembers a few months ago, the feeling of the cold smooth wall of the ice rink’s waiting area against his back, Criasu’s card burning and freezing at the same time in his pocket, and Aisaki Masato’s warm hand in his. A time when everything hurt, and nothing seemed to be right. _I want to be just like this, I want to stay as I am_ , he’d thought then and it had almost trailed to something cruel. It’s winter now, and yet the cold seems all melted away with Masato standing beside him. He’s not remarkable, an average looking boy with expensive yet average looking clothes, with no superpowers to speak of and a sense of self loathing so deep that he’d doubted his very voice.

“Emiru is like fire. Some spark of flame. Trying to keep all those feelings inside, smothering them, only hurt her more. Left her all burnt up. I shouldn’t have let that happen to her, I should’ve told Grandfather before, I should’ve known it was wrong, the way it made me want to throw up and cry because I couldn’t handle it but then just because I couldn’t handle it I shouldn’t have -” his words are coming out too quick, eyes glistening as he watches a livefeed of Twin Love on a bench just outside of his grandfather’s office. Henri had stayed with him, sitting closer to him than they ever sat in any area owned by an Aisaki.

Emiru and Masato’s grandfather had received more shocks than one today. That _he_ was the one who felt betrayed, that _Masato_ was the one left crying again, made Henri’s mouth twitch into an ugly grimace.

“Poetic,” he interjects, forcing lightness. “Maybe you Aisaki siblings have a talent for wordplay.” He hums along with Twin Love’s song as he picks the Criasu business card out of his pocket. Masato stares at him in shock. And then jumps when Henri tears it clean in half. “You wanted to give her your voice,” he says, ripping the card smaller and smaller until the pieces start to scatter in the breeze. He thinks maybe they’ll do something dark, magical, but in the end it’s just _paper_.

“And then you did. If you ever call yourself a coward again, I’ll pinch you,” he beams at Masato. With his hands free, he slips the phone from Masato’s hands and sets it to the side. And then he links their fingers together. “You’ve grown,” he promises Masato. “I think anyone who wants to stop tomorrow from coming after seeing you Aisaki siblings today would be a fool. I think I might slow down a bit after the junior division, not _retire_ \- never - but give myself time to heal more. _After_. Will you let me be with you while you grow?”

Masato is red, a stammering mess as Henri lays his head on his shoulder. He closes his eyes. “You’re warm. If Emiru is a flame, you’re the hearth. Let me ask again, can I stay awhile by _your_ flame, Masato?”

That one may have been cruel, a little twist and tease that has _Masato_ unable to speak now, his skin almost feverishly hot.

It serves a purpose, Henri will promise even as he laughs

he turns his head up to touch his lips to Masato’s.

“Repeat after me. Hooray, hooray, Masato, hooray hooray -”

Masato breathes out: “me

 

…

  
  
  
  


and you too, Henri. Hooray, hooray.”

**Author's Note:**

> Finishing notes:
> 
> a) This is un-beta'd. I'm sorry for every mistake I've definitely made.
> 
> b) I have my own feelings on when Henri succumbs to despair for a minute and I'm not gonna meta here but it ties into why I have him tearing up the card at this specific moment
> 
> c) Henri is non-binary / agender here, Henri is never cis anywhere
> 
> d) Masato is gay as all hell and now Grandpa knows it  
> d2) Grandpa Aisaki honestly didn't do anything to deserve him being all happy and cheerful in the Hugpre epilogue but WHATEVER
> 
> e) Precure ruined my entire life I can never go back
> 
> f) The song is (still) "Something Just Like This" by Coldplay + The Chainsmokers
> 
> g) Yes, most of this end note is just directly copy/pasted from fairytale bliss


End file.
